A Taranaki Grandmother has lost out on $224,000 after being hoodwinked by an AI deepfake of Christopher Luxon encouraging pensioners to invest in cryptocurrency.
One pensioner spotted a realistic video on Facebook in which the prime minister urged pensioners to supplement their income by splurging on Bitcoin.
In the video it also depicted Kiwi broadcaster Jenny May Clarkson and deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.
After responding, she was contacted by a Greek national calling himself Adam Manolas who claimed to be a Terma Group investment adviser based in Manchester.
He explained how the investment worked then sent Creasy software called AnyDesk, which gave him remote access to her computer.
Using her email, he set up accounts under her name at crypto exchange platforms Easy Crypto and Binance, before instructing her to log in to her TSB internet banking.
She watched as he transferred the first of a dozen or so payments over the next 26 days to purchase Bitcoin from Easy Crypto. Most of the payments were for $20,000.
When her inheritance money and savings were exhausted, Manolas withdrew funds from accounts set up specifically for her grandchildren.
She was promised an 8.5 percent return, and told her investment had already ballooned to nearly $320,000. But when the first dividend payment did not materialise in late August, she smelled a rat and tried unsuccessfully to recover her money.
